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Hi there! When I read through your site I remember how I slowly gathered all of that information on my own from various sources when I started diving into making games. A central point would have helped me find my way through the vast information on the internet faster (but I probably would have made the same mistakes anyways). I believe it covers the necessary tools and most important steps: - Advice for starting - Beginner and advanced tools - Tutorials
One thing, however, is the Design part which is really not addressed enough in my opinion. Extra Credits cover some of the Game Design and I think it's good to just start copying games and changing them a bit or simply following tutorials, but if someone wants to seriously get into Game Design and making games, it would be stupid not to learn from books people like Jesse Schell, Raph Koster and others whose names I always forget have written. Jesse's book "Art of Game Design" is also available as a slimmed down free(!) app for Android and iPhone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-art-of-game-design-a-deck-of-lenses/id385531319?mt=8
And the way I understood it is that this site is aimed at people who just want to dive into the world of making games, but if you also want to address people on their epic quest to become a professional (meaning paid) game designer, I think mentioning the most important soft skills and links for how to train them is essential.
Hope my feedback was helpful in some way and please give us Diablo 4 ;)
Deck of lenses @ app store or google play
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If you can't find it for cheap or want to see what kind of stuff there is in the book there's a free mobile app that has the "Deck of Lenses" which basically is the book in a condensed form. It's been a while since I read the book but I still have the app on my phone.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses
Jesse Schell has this nice textbook called "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses" that holds all sorts of questions for designers to ask themselves. If you're not interested in purchasing the book, there's an android app that has a short version of all the chapters in the form of flash cards.
You could also use the free Deck of Lenses companion app to the Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell to look from various perspectives. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses&hl=en)
and for mobile, if you have apple ios or android/Google Play, there’s a cool companion app displaying the concepts as a deck of cards to flip through, cleverly named Art of Game Design: Deck of Lenses.
The book "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses" by Jesse Schell, has a free companion app with a whole host of these questions. It's really good.
Android version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses
Btw, since I'm here, "themselves" is quicker to write and includes enby devs. :)
1) The course consists of 13 to 15 modules/lessons which take place roughly every second week (excluding school holidays). However, the lessons are quite long (3 full hours). I found that this rhythm is better than 1 1/2 hours every week, simply because it takes time to focus on a programming problem and with setting everything up and giving a short introductory presentation about today's lesson, 1 1/2 hours simply weren't enough to work productively.
2) At the time I already had a good understanding of working with GameMaker so I created all the resources myself. I'm sure there are good books on GameMaker out there but I couldn't recomment any.
For the other aspects of game design apart from programming I used the app Game Design Lenses by Jesse Schell as a teaching aid. It is a great way to focus on different elements of a game that you usually never think of as a player but have to take into consideration when developing a game.
3) Since my school can't afford GMS 2's educational licensing I'm still working with GMS 1. I use the import/export functionality of GMS to provide the students with my pre-made sample projects. In GMS 1 the file format is .GMZ and in GMS 2 it is .YYZ
The advantage is that everything (graphics, rooms, objects, etc.) is included in one file which the students can then copy onto their PCs. Instead of "opening" the file in GMS they have to "import" it (File --> Import).
Game Design, a Deck of Lenses app (iOS - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-art-of-game-design-a-deck-of-lenses/id385531319?mt=8 or Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses&hl=en). Lots of questions to ask about your design, and free.
There are a few board game cafes around Toronto (I'd call ahead to ensure teens are allowed as some are considered bars).
The change starts in your heart, dude.
You have to believe in your game and love the project for what it is, love the downsides, the quirks, the bugs and anything that comes with it - the whole package. Now, don't get me wrong, you can make a game without loving the project, but if you're just starting out, do something "fun to make" and prioritize that feeling of "development fun" before the feeling of "gameplay fun" so that you don't get burned out.
I recommend checking out a free app on Google Play that might help you tremendously:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses&hl=pl
It's based on an actual book, Book of Lenses, but it costs a lot of money so if you can't afford it, this app is the quickest way to obtaining at least part of the knowledge from the book.
Fantastic set of resources, thank you!
The Deck of Lenses link was dead for me, but I did find an app related to it for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses&hl=en
The book (The Art of Game Design) was an excellent read imo
While trial and error as mentioned by others is essential, if you prefer a more analytical process you might find Jesse Shell's lenses, which are also availble as free App or Yu-Kai Chou's Octalysis helpful.
I always just stick to these: Android App: Deck of Lenses
It's not the full book, but they are a great digital reference to keep with you.